WPTV and WSM to become ABC affiliation in the 80s

[DucNguyen0131]

(The death of Rebecca Schaeffer has been completely butterflied away, and the year before Judith Barsi and Heather O'Rourke's death has been also butterflied away)

"EGM: The Show is gaining clearance from all of the stations, which reached about 80% of its coverage. This included were WPIX in New York, KCOP in Los Angeles, WGN in Chicago, WTXF in Philadelphia, KTVU in San Francisco, WBFF in Baltimore, KTXA in Dallas, KTXH in Houston, WCGV in Milwaukee and WDCA in Washington, D.C. We are promising to be the next number one show from the same creative team as Fun House."
-excerpted from a print ad, Broadcasting, July 1989

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"The Game Boy is here in North America, and the full color, Game Boy TV Adapter, for the NES is here! Consisting of a full 56-color experience that allows you to play Game Boy games on a TV screen. We have built its four launch titles on the success Tetris, Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Tennis and Baseball. We built on the pack-in with Tetris. We also have a new NES unit featuring three cartridges Super Mario Bros. and the Game Boy TV Adapter comprising two cartridges Super Mario Land and Tetris, plus the amazing Disk System, Cassette System and the upcoming CD-ROM adapters. We have played the original Game Boy in monochrome, and we have played the same games in full color on a full TV set on the NES."
-Howard Lincoln, on an interview with the Game Boy American launch

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"Our console rights of Tetris is the most addictive. We have gotten our rights on behalf of Tengen and Atari Games, who sublicensed those to Bullet Proof Software in Japan and Nintendo for the handheld rights, plus Sega for the additional rights. We also distributed Namco titles, as well as licensing agreements with Bandai, Mindscape, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic and Taxan, to coordinate with the Namco and Atari rights for home consoles, like Xybots, Xevious, Road Runner, 720, Mappy-Land and Blasteroids. Tetris is the fast-selling Nintendo title of the year, so we have hope for more sequels."
-Tengen producer Bill Hindoroff, in an interview with IGN.com in 2004

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Quick review on the July 1989 NES titles from the August 1989 issue of Computer Entertainer:

Street Football, the game where our football takes you to the streets, was the first ever title from Color Dreams. There's going on that the game of football is overrun by the street corners, with hip-hop action on the beat, and decided that they will play by play per team.
Our Score: Recommended

Game Boy TV Adapter, the full color TV adapter of the Game Boy, from Nintendo. Plays all the current and future Game Boy titles, from right now and the future, even for the gaming's 21st century, in complete full color as opposite to the original monochrome Game Boy. The pack-in title Tetris is challenging, with easier players to play, via two NES controllers for challenge.
Our Score: Recommended

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Quinty to make sales

After a strong debut showing by Sony Interactive on June 27, 1989, Quinty became the fast-selling console game to be run on the Famicom Disk System by Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., a division of Sony Corporation of Japan. It will grow that they received 1,000,000 copies. The first title from Game Freak, it was meant to be one or two players co-op, and the players were boys that were to avoid the enemy dolls.

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"Ken Kutaragi and Satoshi Tajiri were great friends. We pitched the Quinty concept to Namco, but executives didn't like it because they were too cute. One day, Ken Kutaragi of Sony met Tajiri while working on the game and Sony was impressed with the concept, and hopefully met its summer 1989 deadline. We can grew into the sales that Sony impressed with his Game Freak company. Sony is the right publisher and the right way to do Quinty, because we have a spectacular concept."
-Quinty designer Satoshi Tajiri, from an interview with IGN.com, June 6, 2003

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"Bringing the Game Boy and the Game Boy TV Adapter to North America is a great concept, and it was the right way to have the pack-in title everybody could play, Tetris, we are the new number one Game Boy title. We have eight different licensees, among them Tengen offered the console rights, and we sublicensed it to Nintendo for the handheld rights. Sony developed the Game Boy TV Adapter on behalf of Nintendo, who developed accessories for the NES and SNES, most notably the Super Nintendo CD."
-Howard Lincoln, in an interview with GameSpot.com, June 7, 2011

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Game Boy to make triumphant debut

The Game Boy is heading for a triumphant debut in the North American market. There's also a separate adapter that fits well into your Nintendo Entertainment System to play games in full-color, the Game Boy TV Adapter.

Although the Game Boy is in monochrome, with only four colors within the portable screen, the Game Boy TV Adapter is in full color and can easily be fit into your Nintendo Entertainment System cartridge. Although the Game Boy is the brainchild of Gunpei Yokoi, the Game Boy TV Adapter was Sony Interactive's brainchild, and could be an independent second-party developer for Nintendo. We can survive into a newer portable console that has four colorful screens in stereo, while the Game Boy TV Adapter takes you up to 56 colors.

-excerpted from an article in the 20th Anniversary July 2009 issue of GamePro

(BTW, the Super NES is backwards compatible with the NES. This means we use the Game Boy TV Adapter's enhanced palettes in the Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Color ITTL)

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Sega's incredible launch

The Sega Genesis received its launch incredibly by Sega of America, in cooperation with Atari on August 14, 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles, with hopes to release later that year in other areas. The pack-in title was Altered Beast. Some upcoming accessories include a VHS-based adapter, and the Telegenesis Modern. We hope that Sega Genesis would get more sports titles by the fall of 1989.

The VHS-based adapter was originally developed by Hasbro, and redeveloped by Sega, hoping it for a chance of the success.

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"The Sega Genesis is the most exciting and breakthrough concept of the new fourth generation. We have the new VHS adapter and the Telegenesis Modern. A new generation for 16-bit gaming is pure fun, and forever. Sega has an incredible launch library, like Space Harrier II and Capcom's Ghouls n' Ghosts, as well as Super Thunder Blade, Tommy Lasorda Baseball and its launch game Altered Beast. We changed gaming forever, and we have newer 16-bit technology, and we have the addict of pure fun, combining with the magic of the new Atari power."
-Jack Tramiel, head of Atari Corporation, from an interview with IGN.com on January 27, 2007

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The Rise of Broderbund

The King of Chicago, the Nintendo adaptation of the computer game, licensed from Cinemaware hits stores this month, putting out Broderbund Software on the map. The gameplay has been censored to fit the Nintendo censorship guidelines. It is out for the Nintendo Disk System, which is the commonplace for disk based games, and also Broderbund found its way to success.

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"We have an Australian-based studio Beam Software, whose mission is to convert The King of Chicago for both Cinemaware and Broderbund Software to the Nintendo Disk System. We previously put them on the map with our R-Type port from Irem, and already hitting stores were Deadly Towers and The Guardian Legend, two of the best-selling Nintendo titles that also had to put Broderbund on the map. We also got the U-Force, which is a hands-free controller."
-Alan Weiss, Broderbund producer, from an interview with GameSpot.com on March 28, 2006

Computer Entertainer's game review (from September 1989):

The King of Chicago (Rating: ★★★★/★★★★ ), a newer computer game adaption of the hit Cinemaware game from Broderbund, is a throwback to the classic 1930s type-genre, in which the player could follow the controller with a certain date in order to form a syndicate, and decided to murder in order to take care of the city. Available for the Nintendo Disk System.
Recommended.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

TurboGrafx-16 made spectacular debut

NEC Technologies' and its new console TurboGrafx-16 is rolling out in New York and Los Angeles on August 29, 1989 with nine launch titles Alien Crush, China Warrior, Dungeon Explorer, Power Golf, R-Type (an arcade game by Irem that was ported a year earlier to Sega for its Master System and for the NES courtesy of computer software publisher Broderbund Software), The Legendary Axe, Victory Run, Vigilante, and the console's pack-in game Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, which had high hopes in order to become a hit title for the system, and had a decision to do sports games in the near future, as well as CD-ROM and VHS adapters.

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"We changed gaming forever. We had the Atari/Sega Genesis, the 8-bit NES, and now we're going the 16-bit power, pure computer power with TurboGrafx-16, with its more powerful 16-bit software and newer graphics compared to subpar Nintendo, with 8-bit graphics. It took the power and advantages in order to take cure of the pure 16-bit GPU with the fourth generation. So it all begins."
-Keith Schaefer, on the 20th anniversary of the launch of the TurboGrafx-16, on IGN.com, August 29, 2009

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Super Famicom be backward compatible with the Famicom

The Super Famicom, a console developed by Sony announced that they will go for release next year, will be backward compatible with the Famicom, but Sony Interactive Entertainment, a longtime third-party Nintendo developer, was pleased of the backward compatibility idea, and has plans to develop a new 8-bit adapter for the SNES, similar to what Sega did with the Mega Adapter, for playing old SG-1000 and Mark III/Master System games. Ken Kutaragi was proud of the new unnamed 8-bit adapter idea. Subsidiary Sony Interactive Entertainment America already had Super Dodge Ball, on now for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

EGM: The Show made its debut

EGM: The Show was debuting to stronger ratings, on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, at a margin rating of 13.5, compared to another video game-focused show Computer Entertainer: The Television Show, from MGM/UA Television, which had steadily low ratings. Electronic Gaming Monthly: The Show will be sanctioned by the magazine itself, which had just released its issue several months earlier. It was produced by the same team who provided the award winning Fun House, who had just finished its run for the 1988-89 season. Warner Bros. had high hopes generating from the program.

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BEAU WEAVER: Welcome to the world of video games, quick reviews, and the next waves, what do you want to do every week on ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY: THE SHOW! And now, here's our reviewer and master of EGM, ALEX DESERT!

DESERT: Thank you, Beau. Welcome to EGM: THE SHOW, and here's our quick review on the first video games. Our first video game story was a recap on one of the highly successful game show P.O.W., the smash Nintendo game. Now here are the four players who took advantage of recapping.
-opening from the premiere episode of EGM: The Show, on September 8, 1989

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New FOX games!

Four new Fox game shows are heading the way to premiere. These are Jackpot, a revival of the 1970s game show, from Bob Stewart, hosted by Geoff Edwards, Celebrity Secrets, a game show, and a revival of All-Star Secrets, hosted by Bob Eubanks, The Last Word, Merrill Heatter's new game show, hosted by Wink Martindale and Jennifer Lyall, and a new Canadian game show Talkabout, hosted by Wayne Cox, produced by CBC. Speaking of CBC, FOX also brought in the newer game show Hockey Night in Canada, which had play-by-play simulcast.

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3rd Degree on the way

Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is launching a new game show, 3rd Degree!, hosted by Peter Marshall in its new hosting gig, and Don Morrow serving as announcer. The game format follows was they made a four panel of celebrities. The producing team of Win, Lose or Draw is making the series. The premiere week on WNBC hit well a series high, thanks to the performance of Peter Marshall.

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Other weekly game shows

Three new weekly game shows arrived again with RollerGames, a new game show in the Super Roller Dome, which is about a sport of roller derby, hosted by four teams, American Gladiators, a show about a cast of amateur athletes to compete against its own gladiators, and a syndicated version of the MTV hit series Remote Control. all debuted to stronger performing ratings on various television stations.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

And now, a recap of kids' TV in TTL's 1989, and how successful they are currently as of the end of 1989. Video game cartoons had just entered the picture.

NBC: In 1989, NBC is resurrecting their own Saturday night lineup, hoping to be number one. First off there's the return of ALF Tales, which was on the air a year ago, followed by three DIC/Saban cartoons Camp Candy (based around comedian John Candy), Captain N: The Game Master (centered on Nintendo games) and The Karate Kid (an adaptation of the Columbia Pictures film franchise), followed by two long-time staples The Smurfs (which has been on the air since 1981) and NBC's long-standing The Chipmunks (which has been on the air ever since 1983), and the two new live-action shows directly aimed at teenagers, Saved by the Bell (a retooled version of Good Morning Miss Bliss), and Team Defense Force (a DIC/Saban joint project, an adaptation of Toei's Choujuu Sentai Liveman), a retooling of Saban's original plans to adapt the Bioman show in 1986, which was seen as a precursor to Saban's later Power Rangers (adaptation of the Super Sentai shows) which has been on the air since 1993 on FOX Kids, and reruns of ALF: The Animated Series. Though Brandon Tartikoff initially turned down, Andy Heyward liked the project and appealed to NBC themselves. The two new live-action shows could repeat the success of the cartoons themselves.

CBS: CBS went around its new direction with merchandise-heavy shows. One of the merchandise-heavy is the new Ruby-Spears show Dink, the Little Dinosaur, followed by Jim Henson's Muppet Babies (a longtime staple ever since 1984), Pee-wee's Playhouse (also a longtime staple since 1986), the new cartoon The California Raisins Show (based on toylines from the California Raisin Advisory Board) and then last year's big hit Garfield and Friends, followed by the new Marvel Productions cartoon Rude Dog and the Dweebs, and then a brand-new cartoon Xybots (produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, based on the hit Atari arcade game, developed by David Wise, who also wrote episodes of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and CBS Storybreak. Xybots had high hopes to repeat the same success CBS is doing with their Garfield and Friends and Muppet Babies shows.

ABC: ABC had high hopes for a brand new direction. ABC first kicked things off with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Disney's Gummi Bears/Winnie the Pooh Hour (a one-hour block consisting of Disney's The Adventures of the Gummi Bears, which was picked off from NBC, and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh), Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters (which had been a longtime staple ever since 1986), Beetlejuice (an adaptation of the 1988 Warner Bros./Geffen Pictures motion picture of the smae name) The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (which also had been on the air since 1986), Animal Crack-Ups, only to be replaced in January 1990 by The Adventures of Alex Kidd (an adaptation of the Sega game franchise, produced by DiC Enterprises) and the ABC Weekend Special. The Adventures of Alex Kidd has been just delayed from the fall 1989 start is because that the animation would not be rushed, so it would be completed.

Syndication: There are a little things about their first-run syndication market. Disney gave them a one-hour block with The DuckTales/Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Hour, which was been moved off from FOX to several Chris-Craft stations, namely WOR-TV in New York and KCOP in Los Angeles. Next up, a new syndicated cartoon and a one-hour block The Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, from DiC Entertainment (which revolved around Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Castlevania, California Games, Double Dragon and The Legend of Zelda, both of them were based on video games), which was designed for stripping by Viacom Enterprises for a total of 65 episodes. DIC also had five-episode miniseries runs on Ring Raiders, on behalf of syndicator Bohbot Entertainment, and a new version of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, on behalf of Sunbow Productions and Claster Television, and a English-dubbed version of the Japanese Transformers shows, produced by DIC, using the 1984 cast, also from Sunbow and Claster. World Events also debuted a new cartoon Vytor: The Starfire Champion, and a new original Robotech show from Harmony Gold. Hanna-Barbera also added a new syndicated Paddington Bear animated cartoon. Group W also offered a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon that eventually went to stripping by 1990. Nonetheless, Warner Bros. had the existing Fun House live-action children's game show, now in tis second year.

Nickelodeon: Nickelodeon is giving them the first ever original kids show Hey Dude, which was promising to be a major hit. Nickelodeon, the kids network also had a game show Think Fast!, which was hosted by Michael Carrington, and two teams were competing in various events, and Make the Grade, a show hosted by Lew Schneider, and decided to answer trivia questions to make the grade, both of them also promising to be hits. Nickelodeon also has highly profile reruns of Heathcliff, Doctor Snuggles, Inspector Gadget, Star Trek: The Animated Series and Looney Tunes, plus the first original cartoon (later to be designed a Nicktoon), Tattertown, developed by Ralph Bakshi.

The Disney Channel: The Disney Channel is offering newer family-friendly programming, like The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, a revival of the 1950s staple The Mickey Mouse Club, as well as existing family-friendly programming like Kids Incorporated, a continuation of the program that was originally on syndication, that laid the foundation of talent actors and actresses.

The ten most popular currently running kids shows at the end of 1989.
1. The Smurfs (NBC)
2. The Chipmunks (NBC)
3. ABC Weekend Special (ABC)
4. Jim Henson's Muppet Babies (CBS)
5. Robotech (Syndication)
6. CBS Storybreak (CBS)
7. The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (ABC)
8. Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters (ABC)
9. DuckTales (Syndication)
10. Garfiield and Friends (CBS)

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Seismic to release first title

Seismic Software, Inc. is releasing their first title, Alien Syndrome, for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Produced in cooperation with Sega Enterprises, this game faithfully followed the plot of the arcade version. The launch price Seismic got was $49.99, a price more valuable than any other Nintendo game. The other three titles proposed by Seismic, to be out later this year, also licensed from Sega was Shinobi, After Burner and their own version of Fantasy Zone. Seismic was based in 3375 Scott Boulevard, Santa Clara, California, and will be the next Nintendo licensee, guarantying the new standard of Nintendo licensees.

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Computer Entertainer's review:
ALIEN SYNDROME (★★★/★★★) is a translated version of the Sega game for Seismic Software is another extremely fast action game. We must run around and decided to shoot the captives and then the time bomb explodes as time run out, and face down the mother alien. Like with Metroid, all players were extra-terrestrials and we are friendly. As a one or two player game, we must capture all the explosions to be challenging.
Recommended.

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Atari Lynx is here!

The 16-bit handheld Atari Lynx is here! Developed by the Epyx as the Handy, the new powerful portable Atari Lynx is a 16-bit handheld system, and the launch price was $179.95, hoping that Atari could save the industry, and decided that the best console launch. Comes with a pack-in game, California Games, the other launch titles on the Atari Lynx were Blue Lightning, Chip's Challenge, Electrocop and Gates of Zendocon, with the intent of Atari to license more titles.

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"The Atari Lynx was just as superior as the new Sega Genesis. We are Epyx's pet project. We have a pack-in game, California Games, and four other launch titles, also happened to be from Epyx. With the superior graphics and sound compared to the Genesis, we have exciting features to go all the way with sports titles coming out also to be in the near future for you. But the Game Boy is in monochrome, the handheld is in straight color."
-Jack Tramiel, head of Atari Corporation, from an interview with IGN.com on January 27, 2007

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Sega offers two new titles

Sega of America is offering two newer Sega Genesis titles for home play in the United States. The two newer titles on the Genesis were Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf and the Capcom arcade title Ghouls 'n Ghosts, with the ability to ship by future play. Sega promises that a videocassette adapter was to be in the works, possibly by early 1990 and have high hopes for the anticipated new title. The title World Championship Soccer was already out last month, and the initial Sega Genesis launch titles was believed to be out two months ago, with Altered Beast as the pack-in title.

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ShareData officially makes first new Nintendo titles

ShareData, a newer Nintendo licensee has officially announced its first three Nintendo Entertainment System titles. These were all three licensed from Exidy, Chiller (a Zapper-compatible game), Death Race and Crossbow, which was originally released as arcade's bestsellers. ShareData proves that the excitement for Nintendo Entertainment System was thought to be everything but fun.

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"ShareData was a proud Nintendo licensee. We previously offered titles to Tengen, who decided to retain their Nintendo licensing status, and we had high hopes for licensing agreements with Exidy. Hopefully, there are some Nintendo games that would hoped to be the next Tetris. Our bestseller, Tetris, was at Tengen, became the number one Nintendo video game of the year, and became a big smash hit, so it has high hopes to become more successful."
-Richard Frick, in an interview with IGN.com, March 14, 2009

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Nintendo to open West Coast development team

Nintendo of America is planning on to open a West Coast development team, based in Sacramento, California, backed by former Atari Games programmer Peter Thompson and artist Debbie Hayes, who previously helped them as the design team of Peter Pack-Rat, which already received a NES port in 1987. The new team would be called Nintendo American Research Team, and it will provide development tools for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy.

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"We are proud that Nintendo had its own Western development team. We initially got the first West Coast team, Rare Ltd. of England in 1986. Now there are more developers going on and on. Now, we have its own office in Sacramento, and we have all received the research to launch their own North American development studio of Nintendo. We have the old Peter Pack-Rat friends here and there, and now we are pleased with their own American-produced games."
-Howard Phillips, in an interview with the NES and the Nintendo Power, May 15, 2005

(BTW, some of the deaths on the fall of the Berlin Wall has been butterflied away)

 

[DucNguyen0131]

The Berlin Wall fell

The Berlin Wall officially fall in East Berlin, East Germany and West Berlin, West Germany. It was torn down and officially dismantling and decided that demolition could continue. The latter event went down and opening the gates between the orders, and the Wall is starting to be removed. Most of the people has been died due to the ongoing Berlin Wall event. The inner German border has also been fell at the same time. Germany would be reunited later.

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Mindscape releases two new games

Mindscape is releasing two new games for the Nintendo Entertainment System this month. These games were 720° and Road Runner, under license from Atari Games via Tengen. These two games originally came out in 1986 for the arcades, but the NES incarnation is the most accurate compared to the two games that was originally for the arcades. Mindscape secured the rights for both the computers and consoles.

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Nintendo Compact Disk System goes official launch

The Nintendo Compact Disk System, a new CD-ROM add-on for the Nintendo Entertainment System has been officially launched to great fanfare, costing $149.99. The project, developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, is the most ambitious project ever created. The first games were conversions of titles were originally developed for the Nintendo Cassette System, and the third was a original new title that came from Sony Interactive Entertainment's hands.

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"To great fanfare, we have both the Disk System and the Cassette System, and now we have the Compact Disk System, which was officially launched this month, and we have a more expensive prize to sell. We have the most money advantages to pay, and decided that Nintendo wanted to be a bigger community license by holding out all the advantages in order to pay their cash for the new CD-ROM system. We had high hopes in order to do well by the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons."
-Howard Phillips, on the official launch of the Nintendo Compact Disk System, November 14, 1989

 

[DucNguyen0131]

LJN to launch two new games

LJN Toys Ltd., once a struggling toy company who developed the NES games, is launching two new properties NHL Hockey Challenge (a title licensed from the NHL), and an original intellectual property Happy Land, both of the two titles expected from the Nintendo Entertainment System. NHL would expected to join in the ranks of the Major League Baseball and the NFL, with a potential title pending, NBA Basketball, which was also discussed as a licensee agreement by LJN Toys Ltd., for the Game Boy. Glen Rock, N.J.-based Imagineering Inc. said that NHL Hockey Challenge is a good pitch, even though for LJN. The company is also looking for a new business.

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"We have great developing teams, such as Rare Ltd., and Beam Software, and now we have a US-based developer Imagineering, who wanted to develop a hockey game, not unlike that of Nintendo's Ice Hockey, which was a great-selling title. Our business is struggling, and now we have their new business with their own creative content and their business is yours."
-Jack Friedman, chairman of LJN Toys, Ltd., from an interview with GameSpot.com, April 15, 2008

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NBA signs with NBC

The National Basketball Association is signing a new $600 million contract with the NBC, ending NBA's tenure with the CBS, hoping that they would go into effect beginning with the 1990-91 season. Hopefully, NBC is proud with their relationship. The current CBS-NBA relationship would end in the spring of 1990, and decided that NBA would go to the number one network, but the primetime lineup is not dying.

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Sony to extend support with Nintendo

Sony Interactive Entertainment, who was with Nintendo Co., Ltd. is extending their support agreement with Nintendo, in which was optioned to develop a full-on Famicom backward compatible adapter for the Super Famicom, in which the Famicom allows you to play 8-bit games, as well as a floppy disk adapter, consisting of the original Famicom Disk System cartridges, and TTL's alternative vision of Super Famicom CD, will be backwards compatible with the original Famicom Compact Disk System discs, thanks to the power and backwards compability with the old Famicom. Sony is currently developing the Game Boy TV Adapter for the Famicom.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Game Boy became the seller of Christmas

Both the Game Boy, as well as the NES adapter Game Boy TV Adapter (play Game Boy games in its entirely in full color, 56 colors at a time) is becoming the best-selling title by Christmas, with the anticipation that Tetris became the most-played out of all Game Boy games everywhere, and also Super Mario Land became the title that boys could everybody play. Game Boy was now the top handheld system of all time and a best-selling game system by Christmas, having high hopes that both the Game Boy and the Game Boy TV Adapter would sell well.

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"The Game Boy is the most pleasing console of all time. We have Gunpei Yokoi to design and direct the monochrome Game Boy, and third-party contract developer/designer Sony Interactive Entertainment and friend Ken Kutaragi is developing the separate full-color Nintendo television adapter for the Famicom, in which they allow them to play Game Boy TV games in full color. We are in store by worldwide, by Christmas, to become the fastest-growing console of all time."
-Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo, on an interview with GameSpot.com on the 10th Anniversary of Game Boy, April 18, 1999

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Genesis became fast-selling by Christmas

The Sega Genesis became the fastest-selling 16-bit video game console by Christmas. As Sega is extending their contract with Capcom, they will hope to develop more arcade ports by 1990, including Bionic Commando, Strider, Street Fighter, and a title originally conceived for the NES, Codename: Viper. Sega is currently releasing their newer games for both the 16-bit Genesis and the 8-bit Master System cartridges, with the anticipation of going to be a smash hit, by dealers for all regions of the U.S., with the fastest-growing net reach.

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Western developer enters Nintendo scene

As Westwood Associates is already entering the Nintendo scene with a conversion of Vindicators, Westwood is looking to develop a original action platforming pitch for LJN Toys, Ltd., which was meant to be for the Nintendo Disk System. LJN realized it was a struggling toy company that was owned by MCA, but there are high hopes and pitches that would ultimately go well by 1990, even by the Disk System, as floppy disks became the standard for the gaming industry, and cartridges are obscure in the end of the video game industry.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Tengen looks to develop the Game Boy

Tengen, with the outstanding success of Tetris and its merchandise, is looking to develop the Game Boy, as well as the 56-color Game Boy TV Adapter. Where it developed, Tengen would start working on a Game Boy and a NES version of the hit 1989 arcade smash Badlands, helmed by Bill Hindorff, as well as Game Boy adaptations of Gauntlet and Marble Madness, two of the top-selling arcade titles Atari Games retrieved. The company also completed work on the Nintendo adaptation of Toobin', which was scheduled for release as early as 1990, as predictors observed.

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"As Atari Games already reverse engineered the NES, we already reverse engineered the Game Boy. We granted a licensing agreement from Nintendo of America to help and improve the sales of Tengen's own games. One of the own games Tengen obtained the rights is for Pac-Man, as well as the console iterations of Tetris, who had just became the number one title for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and spawned iterations for Sega platforms, and the Game Boy."
-Steve Calfee, Tengen employee, at an interview with IGN.com, March 10, 2002

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EGM's Best of 1989
Game of the Year Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Sega Genesis)
Genesis Game of the Year Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Sega Genesis)
Master System Game of the Year Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Sega Master System)
Nintendo Game of the Year: Tetris (NES)
TurboGrafx Game of the Year: The Legendary Axe (TurboGrafx-16)
Best Hardware: Sega Genesis
Most Challenge: Tetris (NES)
Best Graphics: Tetris (NES)
Best Music/Sound: Fighting Street (TurboFrafx-16)
Developer / Software House: Sega, Konami, Acclaim, Sunsoft, Tecmo, Tengen
Best Character / Hero: Mega Man (Mega Man 2)
Best RPG: Ultima III: Exodus (NES)
Best Sports Game: World Class Baseball/Tommy Lasorda Baseball/Baseball Simulator 1000
Best Video Game Controller: Joycard Sansui SSS
Coolest Boss / Best Group: Loki (Ghouls 'n Ghosts)/Jagu (The Legendary Axe)
Best Movie to Game: Batman: The Video Game
Best Ending in a Video Game: The King of Chicago

VG&CE's Best Games of 1989
Video Game of the Year: Legendary Axe (TurboGrafx-16)
Best Sports-Simulation Video Game: Tommy Lasorda Baseball (Sega Genesis)
Best Action Video Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
Best Simulation Game: Alien Crush (TurboGrafx-16)
Best Strategy Game: Tetris (NES) and A Boy and His Blob (NES) (tie)
Best Action-Strategy Game: Mega Man 2 (NES)
Best Adventure Video Game: Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (NES)
Best Sound and Graphics in a Video Game: Thunder Force II (Sega Genesis) and Tetris (NES) (tie)
Best Coin-Op to Video Game Translation: Ghouls 'n' Ghosts (Sega Genesis)
Most Innovative Video Game: A Boy and His Blob (NES)
Computer Game of the Year: Populous (Multiplatform)
Best Computer Sports Simulation: Zany Golf (IBM PC, Amiga)
Best Computer Action Game: Captain Blood (Multiplatform)
Best Computer Simulator: Vette! (IBM PC)
Best Computer-Strategy Game: SimCity (Multiplatform)
Best Action-Strategy Game: Lords of the Rising Sun (Amiga, IBM PC)
Best Computer Adventure: Manhunter: New York (Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC)
Best Computer Game Sound & Graphics: David Wolf: Secret Agent (IBM PC)
Best Coin-Op to Home Computer Translation: Arkanoid (Multiplatform)
Most Innovative Computer Games: Star Saga One (IBM PC)
Best Arcade Game of the Year: S.T.U.N. Runner (Arcade)
Most Innovative Arcade Game: Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters (Arcade)
Best Driving Simulator: Hard Drivin' (Arcade)
Best Flying Game: Metalhawk (Arcade)
Best Multiplayer Game: Crime Fighter (Arcade)
Best Combat Game: Dynamite Duke (Arcade)
Best Sports Simulator (Futuristic): Cyberball 2072 (Arcade)

Top 10 Video Games:
1. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
2. Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (NES)
3. Tetris (NES)
4. Tetris (Game Boy)
5. A Boy and His Blob (NES)
6. Altered Beast (Genesis)
7. Alien Crush (TurboGrafx-16)
8. Mega Man 2 (NES)
9. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
10. Rolling Thunder (NES)

-

MGM cancels show

MGM/UA Television is officially stopping production on Computer Entertainer: The Television Show, and it was officially cancelled due to lack of competition from upstart hit EGM: The Show. The second season brought in poorer ratings, and the magazine officially reached its final issue on January 1990, known simply as The Video Game Update, and led EGM to be the top show.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 6, 1990 - A recap at the Winter CES

Time now again for all the electronics companies to show off this season's Consumer Electronics Show, which proven big with their newest technologies and becoming the most exciting one yet. Time now forwards that promised the new VHS-based console and gaming systems, as well as new impact on the CD-ROM industry, which saw it as a bigger viewpoint, while the 16-bit systems is the most exciting breakthrough in history. At the Winter CES, Sega and Atari jointly presenting their own new Genesis games such as Super Hydlide, viewed as an update to the old Nintendo game. Sega also has 20 third-party titles up to late 1990.

Meanwhile Atari alone has Paperboy on the Lynx, which could be considered a hit of sorts, along with RoadBlasters and Rampage, which looks to be promising.

Nintendo saw the biggest ones out right with their home incarnation of Hard Drivin' by Tengen, and also we have a new Codemasters audio CD player and the Power Pak. More than 35 titles were announced for the Game Boy, such as Solar Striker. Over at the cassette and the CD-ROM version, we have a spiritual successor to the Metroid concept, Alientroid, which had high hopes, as well as a disk version of the BattleTech game, which had looked promising that they would help sales of the BattleTech product lines, after the promising success of the DOS version.

Over at TurboGrafx-16, we have more than 25 titles to be announced. New portable consoles were unveiled for the TurboExpress and the Game Gear handheld consoles, and a proposed Game Gear TV adapter would be developed for the Genesis. The Game Gear will be 8-bit, compared to the Master System.

The Sega front had lots of new games like Thunder Force III, Hard Yardage and a new VHS-based adapter, originally conceived by Hasbro as the NEMO, now fit right into the Genesis, with their own Night Trap game, as well as their own Sewer Shark game.

If its Atari, Nintendo, NEC or Sega, video games become the centerpiece on the year's Winter CES, and we have to post on all the exciting news ahead.

-from the Computer Chronicles report on the Winter 1990 CES, January 9, 1990

-

"We have new titles for the Nintendo Cassette System, the Nintendo Compact Disk System, and our big project, and we have great relations with Nintendo, hoping for more games on the Nintendo technology in the future."
-Olaf Olaffson, from an interview with Computer Chronicles at the 1994 Winter CES.

-

Computer Entertainer airs final show

MGM/UA Television is officially airing their final show of Computer Entertainer: The Television Show, which by that the time the magazine itself has been declining due to competition from Electronic Gaming Monthly, with the anticipation to get new technology.

-

1990 Winter CES Update!

The West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center is home to most of the computer and videogame exhibits and it was a very busy place throughout the show. Nintendo took the biggest chunk of real estate (55 licensees take up a lot of space), followed by Sega/Atari, and then NEC. Fewer computer software companies than usual were on the show floor, with many of them opting for nearby hotel suites instead. Now that we've seen the show, written about most of it, and had a chance to soak our feet, here are some of the trends. Auto racing games for NES were everywhere, most of them endorsed by professional drivers. There were also lots of pinball games, cassette FMV games, and more monster truck-mashing games than we really need. (Lesson from the past: consumers can be confused by too many choices. If they're too confused, they tend not to buy anything.

Most Nintendo licensees have discovered TV in the past few months, watch for a flood of game commercials. Puzzle games are looming as a major trend, showing up in numbers on the NES, Game Boy and computers. On the computer side of the aisle, the buzzword was "interface". Everyone was talking about making games more accessible to players and several developers are doing something about it. Brian Moriarty's LOOM for Lucasfilm did the most about it. A continuing trend that's getting stronger: popular computer games licensed to video game companies for conversion to NES, the Disk System and now Sega Genesis and NEC TurboGrafx-16 formats. Also, many respected computer game designers are now doing video game work as well.

Rumor heard most often at CES, both NEC and Sega are working on hand-held color video game systems. Neither company will confirm nor deny at this point. Among our special memories from this CES; the fun of hosting another reception for subscribers and industry friends...the "Hollywood spectacular" put on by Cinemaware and NEC to tell the world about IT CAME FROM THE DESERT and CD-ROM games...and the puppy named Shinobi ("mom and dad" are CE subscribers Leslie and Renwick Thompson) who visited the Sega booth and later "crashed" our CE reception.

-from the Winter 1990 article in the January 1990 issue of Computer Entertainer.

-

NBC sells off TV stations in mid-sized markets

NBC announced that they would sell TV stations in middle-sized markets, like WCRN in Schenectady, WKYC in Cleveland/Akron and KTVX in Salt Lake City, for $500 million, in the wake of NBA's deal with the NBC, with the focus NBC is doing was to own TV stations in larger markets like WNBC in New York City, KNBR in San Francisco, WSFN in Miami, and KCNC in Denver.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Absolute on the rise

Absolute Entertainment, with the success of A Boy and His Blob on the Nintendo Cassette System, became the fastest-growing merchandise ever, and Absolute helped to develop its second original IP, High School Town, a title envisioned by Scott Marshall, game designer and programmer. The company also negotiated to partner with DIC Enterprises to develop a new Boy and His Blob animated cartoon that was for debut in 1990, to be pitched to NBC. DIC already has several NBC shows on the shop, like Captain N and the Game Master and The Chipmunks.

-

"A Boy and His Blob is successful. We have obtained the rights to DIC and NBC, who wanted to do a cartoon based on the games, and had a good relationship with both DIC and NBC to go in a 90-minute block with Captain N and Super Mario. We had told you that it was a good fit within the gaming portfolio, and we fit well in a 90-minute clocking time."
-David Crane, creator of A Boy and His Blob, in an interview with GameSpot.com, January 16, 2000

-

Mega Drive Cassette Adapter released

Sega Enterprises Ltd. is releasing the Mega Drive Cassette Adapter, a project jointly developed by Hasbro in cooperation with Sega's R&D department (originally conceived as an American VHS-based console called the NEMO, later the Control Vision). Among them was the first full-motion video game, RoboStar, set along the lines of Japanese tokusatsu shows like Ultraman and Super Sentai, two of the most-tightly popular Japanese shows, alongside a port of the existing SMS Cassette System games (which are backwards compatible with the existing Mark III Cassette Adapter cassettes), and the Mega Drive Disk Drive, a storage that was used for floppy disk games (backwards compatible with the existing Master System/Mark III floppy disks).

-

How Tengen jumped to the rise

Tengen, thanks to its success with Tetris is leaping on the way to the Game Boy market with the launch of R.B.I. Baseball 2 and Badlands at the Winter CES 1990 last month, and has license access to Namco for its portable gaming content. Tengen also offered a licensee to Bandai for the console and handheld rights to Atari Games' arcade smash hit Xybots, and by Mindscape for several old arcade games. Tengen also became a fast-rising third-party developer, with its titles on the Sega Genesis, and everything else destined to be more popular.

-

LIN TV to get NBC stations

LIN TV Corporation, of Indianapolis, has acquired NBC O&Os from General Electric, like WCRN-TV in Schenectady/Albany/Troy, KMOL-TV in San Antonio, KTVX in Salt Lake City, and WNNB-TV in Nashville for $500 million, being that they were located in mid-sized markets. This came after NBC sold off several stations last month in order to get the acquisition of NBA rights on NBC.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Fox rolls Tribes

Fox is rolling out a new daytime soap opera Tribes, to be created by Leah Laiman, designed for a teen audience. Tribes went on to be successful (IOTL, it failed), and decided that they would pick up for the entire Fox network. They will roll out to its affiliates, and decided that high hopes to be a hit. Tribes' first slate of cast included Ele Keats, Kim Valentine, Lisa Lawrence, Zero Hubbard, Greg Watkins, Patrick Day, Michael Aron, Scott Garrison, Jill Whitlow, Michelle Stafford and Kerry Remsen. Dennis Steinmetz served as executive producers of the series. Trent Jones served as head writer of the series.

-

NBC sells Cleveland station

Now, NBC is unloading a station in the Cleveland after NBC is divesting itself of stations in mid-sized markets. NBC announced that they would sell its majority stake in WKYC-TV for $65 million to Multimedia, Inc., a Greenville-based publisher responsible for its NBC and CBS affiliates throughout the country. Multimedia owns NBC stations, as well as the King Broadcasting Company stations.

-

NHL is out!

LJN, a struggling game developer had officially releasing NHL Hockey Challenge for the Nintendo Disk System. Designed and programmed by Alex DeMeo at Glen Rock, N.J.-based Imagineering, Inc., the game accurately followed the rules of the NHL, namely the current 1988-89 season, avoiding usage of the players names, due to a lack of a NHLPA licensee. The game has four options, either play mode, a period of time, penalties or line changes, and decided that either NHL team becoming the home season.

-

NHL Hockey Challenge

Steve: 5
Ed: 7
Martin: 7
Jim: 6

Code Name Viper

Steve: 8
Ed: 5
Martin: 6
Jim: 7

Wall of the Night

Steve: 9
Ed: 8
Martin: 9
Jim: 9

Ultimate Soccer Challenge

Steve: 6
Ed: 5
Martin: 6
Jim: 4

Happy Land

Steve: 7
Ed: 6
Martin: 8
Jim: 6

-Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of March 1990's NES, Nintendo Disk System, Nintendo Compact Disk System and Nintendo Cassette System games in the May 1990 issues

-

New pack-in game

A new pack-in game for the Nintendo/Sony QuadSystem, Super Mario Bros. 3, for both the cassette and CD formats, Super Mario Bros. 1+2 for the Disk System, the Game Boy TV Adapter (with Tetris) attached and the original Super Mario Bros. cartridge for the NES, sold at a higher $399.99 price, the most expensive price for any version of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

-

Active Enterprises sought Nintendo licensee

Active Enterprises, who was controlled by Vince Perri gave them a Nintendo licensee, gave them 5 games per year, and the first title was The Green Slime, scheduled for release this fall (Action 52 was butterflied away), leaving Cheetahmen to be the flagship title, and high hopes and anticipations for the franchise, and decided that the new Nintendo licensee would act like a movie studio, and had high hopes for blockbuster-friendly titles, for the Nintendo Disk System, Nintendo Cassette System and the Nintendo Compact Disk System.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

RazorSoft announced as new Nintendo licensee

RazorSoft, Inc., a Oklahoma City-based toy company was announced as a new Nintendo licensee. First titles on the bridge were Spectrum HoloByte's Falcon, and Epyx's Impossible Mission II, with the hope that RazorSoft would sell games for the Nintendo Disk System. These two games were originally designed for its own computer platforms, namely the high-profile DOS and Amiga computers. The new Oklahoma City company thought RazorSoft was proudly pleased of its gaming legacy and decided that RazorSoft would use their high-profile Nintendo licensee.

-

American Video Entertainment gets Nintendo licensee

Newly formed American Video Entertainment is getting their way to a licensing agreement with Nintendo of America in order to publish develop titles for the Nintendo Disk System, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo Cassette System, the Nintendo Compact Disk System and the Game Boy. AVE said that they would be pleased of the licensing deal, and high anticipations that they would repeat the success of what several Nintendo licensees did, like Acclaim Entertainment and Tengen, two of the most-popular Nintendo licensees.

-

Sony subsidiary to release game

Sony Interactive subsidiary CSG Imagesoft is releasing their own Nintendo Cassette System/Nintendo Compact Disk System game Rap Time. Developed by Silicon Video Software, it is about of street gangs who are listening to rap music. Viewers were praised of the rap music, and decided that critics were proudly pleased of the huge controllers, and decided that CSG Imagesoft (the Sony subsidiary) to do well, especially in a dual format. Sony also brought in other video games to feature hip-hop music, and it was proudly pleased.

-

Rap Time

Steve: 8
Ed: 9
Martin: 9
Jim: 9

Demon's Winter

Steve: 10
Ed: 7
Martin: 6
Jim: 8

Xybots

Steve: 4
Ed: 6
Martin: 6
Jim: 5

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Steve: 8
Ed: 7
Martin: 4
Jim: 6

-EGM's review of the NES/add-on games from the May and June 1990 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly

-

ABC sells Fresno and Durham stations

ABC announced that KFSN-TV in Fresno and WTVD in Durham would be sold for $75 million to Fisher/Allbritton Television, whose flagship station is WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. and the West Coast's flagship is KOMO-TV in Seattle, as part of the network's disposal of owning non-core assets, including several television stations in mid-sized markets, in favor of owning stations in large-size markets.

-

Fox's new daytime lineup

The Fox Broadcasting Company is commencing their four new game shows and one children's show on the daytime lineup, dropping the existing games, which are not automatically renewed. The four new games were Quiz Kids Challenge, Hold Everything!, All About the Opposite Sex and Trump Card, while a new kids show entry would be Peter Pan and the Pirates. The soap opera Tribes would be left intact. On Saturday mornings, Fox is offering their new children's block through the Fox Children's Network, which are Zazoo U, Tom & Jerry Kids, Bobby's World, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Pig Out and Fun House.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Now, here's a recap of the 1989-1990 network television season:

ABC:

ABC is seeing their big debut with the rookie shows, like the drama Life Goes On, which is about a family who had ever lived in Chicago, and two new comedies Family Matters, which is about a black family living in Chicago, and Doogie Howser, M.D., which is a single camera comedy about a young child that survived leukemia, and suspicious bursting, working as a genius intellect. This series marked Steven Bochco's first foray into doing their comedy work. Also debuting were rookie newcomers America's Funniest Home Videos, which is based on the Japanese show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan, and viewers sent in video clips from home movies. Returning were The ABC Saturday Mystery Movie, consisting of the freshman block of B.L. Stryker, Columbo, Kojak and Christine Cromwell.

-
CBS:

CBS is doing great with their rookie programming, including A Peaceable Kingdom (IOTL, it flopped), a comeback vehicle for television star Lindsay Wagner, but thanks to dialogue improvements in several episodes, it became the smash Wagner ever had. The other new rookie programs were Major Dad, which is about a family in the United States Marine Corps, Rescue 911, a show about reenactments of emergencies that made calls to 911, and Wolf, which featured a cop turned private detective (IOTL, it flopped, but it has a better lead-in and had better writing, they would go on to dominate the franchise TTL). We also had the returning American Crime, which was shown on Sundays as a lead-in to Murder, She Wrote, which lasted two hours, a staple of which ever since 1985.

-

NBC:

NBC is truly the leading with rookie programming, like Mancuso, F.B.I.. a crime drama that starred Robert Loggia as a veteran of the Bureau now on Washington, D.C. (IOTL, it flopped after one season, but it has been more successful TTL due to improving dialogue), and Hardball (another rookie show that flopped OTL, and it succeeded TTL), where it focused on two cops that were part of law enforcement. Another new rookie comedy debuted was the new comedy The Young Family, which is about a fictitious young family in New York, with two pairs of child actress (portrayed by Judith Barsi and Keri Houlihan), which went on to make success, and Hound Town, Ralph Bakshi's newest animated series for primetime television.

-

FOX:

FOX is becoming an upstart fast-rising network, with the debut of Hockey Night in Canada from CBC (it was triggered by a lawsuit from NBC for whoever owning the television rights to the NHL) as a Saturday night vehicle, plus the hit Friday night programs, which was transferred from Saturdays, COPS, The Reporters and Totally Hidden Video, with the hope of going to success. FOX also debuted a new cartoon The Simpsons, which marked the distinct return to primetime television, and Alien Nation, which was adapted from the 1988 theatrical blockbuster by 20th Century Fox.

-

Top 25 Rated Network TV Programs of the 1989-90 Season:
1. The Cosby Show (NBC)
2. Roseanne (ABC)
3. Cheers (NBC)
4. A Different World (NBC)
5. America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC)
6. The Golden Girls (NBC)
7. 60 Minutes (CBS)
8. Hound Town (NBC)
9. The Wonder Years (ABC)
10. Monday Night Football (ABC)
11. Empty Nest (NBC)
12. Mancuso, F.B.I. (NBC)
13. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
14. A Peaceable Kingdom (CBS)
15. The Young Family (NBC)
16. Wolf (CBS)
17. Hockey Night in Canada (FOX)
18. Coach (ABC)
19. Dear John (NBC)
20. Matlock (NBC)
21. In the Heat of the Night (NBC)
22. Hardball (NBC)
23. Full House (ABC)
24. American Crime (CBS)
25. The Simpsons (FOX)

 

[DucNguyen0131]

"Tonight, on NBC Nightly News, former James Bond writer Kevin McClory, who encouraged in lawsuits, passed away by heart disease at the age of 65 after losing said their lawsuits, including an attempted animated cartoon, to MGM/UA, as well as suffering medicine. Tonight, we'll discuss the death of Kevin McClory in the world by making phenomenon, and suffered from a stroke, and taking a look at the tragic death of McClory himself. He's producing two James Bond movies, including an official one in 1965 and an unofficial one in 1983. The worst possible moment that we had lost the legend of James Bond."
-Tom Brokaw, from the May 10, 1990 edition of NBC Nightly News

-

MGM/UA to regain rights

Following the death of Kevin McClory (IOTL he died in 2006), MGM/UA and EON Productions announced that they would settle lawsuits (IOTL, it didn't happen in 2013) and regained several Bond rights, including Blofeld and SPECTRE, as well as the Thunderball story rights. MGM/UA was forced to sue Columbia for whoever who owned the rights to the character, namely in the 1967 unofficial Bond film Casino Royale (IOTL, it didn't happen until 1997-1999).

-

Exclusive developer agreements

Nintendo of America is signing exclusive developer agreements with Rare, Ltd., Software Creations and Argonaut Software Ltd. to develop games strictly on Nintendo platforms, namely ones developed by Sony. The first game Rare developed under an exclusive agreement would be a NES game adaptation of Captain N and the Game Master, which is based on the NBC cartoon series. The exclusive agreement granted developers a clause that they had the right of first refusal on any games for exclusive agreements and called Nintendo to develop original intellectual properties.

-

Howard & Nester announced

Nintendo of America is announcing their first new project on the Nintendo Cassette System, Howard & Nester, which is based on characters from the Nintendo Power magazine series. The first title to came out from Nintendo of America's internally developed team from California, it was a side-scrolling player that, depends from one to two players using two NES controllers.

-

New Warriors
Steve: 4
Ed: 5
Martin: 5
Jim: 7

Rad Racer 2
Steve: 7
Ed: 5
Martin: 5
Jim: 7

Space Quest
Steve: 8
Ed: 9
Martin: 7
Jim: 9

The Hound of Shadow
Steve: 7
Ed: 7
Martin: 8
Jim: 6

-EGM's review of the May 1990 NES/NES Disk/NES Cassette/NES Compact Disk games from the June 1990 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly

-

Welcome to New Warriors

New Warriors is a new run-and-gun shooter, prepared by LJN Toys, and developed and designed by Chicago-based Incredible Technologies, developer of arcade and computer titles such as The Three Stooges, gave them a proof-of-concept for a run-and-gun game for the Nintendo Cassette System and the Nintendo Compact Disk System, with a group of elite warriors who would become the new warriors, and with the dedicated capabilities of the NES, New Warriors became the newest run-and-gun platforming of all time. The success put LJN Toys Ltd. on the map, and Incredible Technologies becoming the most successful/high profile developer, to push out third-generation games, and the title became the breakthrough title of both LJN Toys and Incredible Technologies, both companies emerged in 1990 as the biggest names in the video game industry, although LJN would go on to make fourth generation video game consoles through the Enteractive brand.

-Excerpted from "Very Forgettable Nintendo Cassette Gems", posted in Gamesovermatter.com, November 17, 2013

-

Famicom Vector System out

The new vector-based Vectrex-style add-on for the Famicom is out. Developed and engineered by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the Famicom Vector System is an adapter to play vector games. Also released was a 3-D graphics adapter, with the help and support of Sony, the Famicom 3D Graphics Adapter, capable of playing games with 3D graphics, supported by developer Argonaut Software Ltd., which had became the growing Famicom developer of all time.

-

NBC and Fox share the NHL

In order to avoid a lawsuit, the NBC and FOX announced that they would share NHL games, with NBC covering the All-Star Game, and FOX covering various NHL season games on Sunday nights, as well as the Hockey Night in Canada, from CBC, which looked promising on Saturdays, through an agreement that was expired in 1992. The rights of Hockey Night in Canada would help them saving the reputation of the FOX Broadcasting Company.

 

[Unknown]

How's Married...With Children doing?

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Now, a recap on the Summer CES 1990.

"Hi. I'm Howard Lincoln, and Howard Phillips. Those two people worked here at the Nintendo of America, and we have its own Western game studio living in the suburbs of California. We got our massive push from exclusive agreements with Argonaut Software, Rare Coin-It, and Software Creations. We have a Captain N cartoon on NBC, and now it's your turn to do a video game adaptation for the NES, which looked promising to be a hit. Nintendo received a licensing agreement with DIC to do cartoons based on video games now on NBC, and we have the new QuadSystem pack-in with the full-color Game Boy TV Adapter, the Cassette System, the Disk System and the Compact Disk System. We have new video games out there, including Dr. Mario, on the Nintendo Disk System, as well as brand new of the two Disk System games Howard & Nester, and Captain N, the Game Master, two of the respective adaptations of other Nintendo non-organized video games, such as the Nintendo Power Magazine, and the animated cartoon. Rare was also in preproduction on a new game all about toads on the Nintendo platform. Argonaut is working on 3D games, specifically for the new vector addon for the NES, and the 3D graphics adapter, also for the NES, but these vector games looked similar to the old Vectrex console from the 1980s. Rare is offering Digger T. Rock, which was sent out to Nintendo for publication because of an exclusive agreement with the developer, and also of World Cup Soccer, a new soccer game Nintendo is publishing. We also got the Game Boy with its four-color screen, and the full color 56 color screen. We also offered Dr. Mario on the handheld, along with Radar Mission, Balloon Kid, F-1 Race and Play Action Football for publication. At the Nintendo Cassette System, we are offering a new adventure StarTropics, and offered them to do a new football game. We bring out the recognition to launch a new vector game Cyber Team, and we are prepared next year for the 16-bit Super NES, which will be backward compatible with the existing 8-bit NES through an adapter that was developed by Sony. We also hope we get a new Zelda on the Cassette System as the 3rd title, but viewers are proudly pleased of the concept. We also hope we are getting on the way to the Winter CES in January, please be patient and remember that Nintendo is always working on the next big thing. Thanks for coming, and we'll see you out on the floor!"
-Howard Phillips' and Howard Lincoln's keynote speech at the Summer 1990 Consumer Electronics Show

Nintendo again as in the past had the largest booth in the games section at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show. Rightfully with the number of its official licensees now having increased to well over 60, there surely wasn't a lack of new software to be shown. In fact, we counted over 125 new games scheduled to be released in the future. With so many titles coming out there unfortunately will be a lot of me-too type games. Except to see upon dozens of 'save-the-princess' adventure games, over 10 new ninja games, 5 new racing games and at least 15 new serious quest or role-playing games. That's not to say that quantity is necessarily bad. What is bad though, is if the game plays poorly and looks bad. And that there was a lot of. Hopefully these games will not make it to the store shelves. On the other hand, there were a lot of very good games shown. Our top 20 include: Adventure Island 2, Captain Skyhawk, Castlevania 3, Caveman Games, Dragon Warrior 2, Falcon, Final Fantasy, G.I. Joe, Gremlins 2, Impossible Mission II, Isolated Warrior, Kickle Cubicle, The Mafat Conspiracy, Megaman 3, The Simpsons, Solstice, Spot, Shadow of the Ninja, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-The Arcade Game, Ultima Quest of the Avatar and Wizardry. These titles will offer the best gameplay, superb graphics, and outstanding soundtracks. Many will have 3 and 4 meg of memory, added MMC3 chips and digitized voices.

Sega again, as in past shows demonstrated that 16 bit technology is definitely the wave of the future. Other companies agree also as with 17 third party licensees showing over 40 new games, the Genesis system is shaping up to be a serious competitor for Nintendo. With regards to games Sega is slowly showing progress on most of the titles originally shown back in January. Dick Tracy now had a few real screens as did Spiderman and Mickey Mouse. Arcade games were farther along with E-Swat, Super Monaco GP and Dynamite Duke almost done. There were a couple of new games shown - Vermillion, a hot new 6 meg RPG is coming this fall as is a fantastic 6 meg conversion of the arcade game Strider. Other scheduled games like Phantasy Star 3, Shadow Dancer and Power Drift were unfortunately nowhere to be seen. Check our International Column elsewhere in this issue for additional top secret photos. The big news though, came from the third party people. Phenomenal titles like Thunder Force 3, Fire Shark, Aero Blasters, Phelios, Whip Rush, Final Zone, Shadow Blasters, Hell Fire, Hard Drivin, Dando and Lakers vs Celtics are the ones to watch for. Most were nearly complete and should nicely supplement the new Sega games this Christmas. Another item not shown at CES but very much a reality was Sega's color portable Game Gear. Check out our EGM Express for a hands-on review of a production model.

One of the biggest surprises at the CES was the appearance of not just a couple but almost 20 new Master System Games. All indications that the 8 bit system was to die a quiet death and that the Genesis would be THE system of the 90's but Sega has decided to do an Atari-type move and perpetuate their older system. Keeping the system alive with a reasonable amount of new games is good as their are tons of Master Systems still in use, but Sega has gone overboard by redesigning the system shell, removing the ancient card port, reducing the price and calling it the Master System 2. As for new games, most of the titles just don't have the spark that ones like R-Type, Out Run, Phantasy Star or Spellcaster had. There are no new RPG's, the sports games aren't significantly better than the existing ones, and the shooters like E-Swat and Aerial Assault are just OK. Moonwalker, Mickey Mouse and Paperboy were the best of the SMS games at the show .The two which have the best potential of being great though, are Ghouls & Ghosts and Strider. Both, unfortunately were so incomplete as that only title screens were all Sega had to show. One would think, with 4 meg of cart memory possible, and great 16-bit translations already done Sega could do wonders with these two games. Also, many other titles like G-Loc and Maze Syndrome could quickly appear as Sega 'Gears' up with new 8-bit cars (different size and pin configuration) for the Game Gear.

-Electronic Gaming Monthly's Summer 1990 CES recap, from their August 1990 issue.

"Let me think, RazorSoft got dual Nintendo and Sega licensees. We programmed Falcon and Stormlord, for their respective platforms. We accurately translated the game from the original home computer versions, namely the DOS and Amiga versions, and wrote it in their assembly language Seghetti got, using their Deluxe Paint software. We worked at Spectrum HoloByte here, now we worked at Punk Development, our in-house studio at Oklahoma City. Punk also brought Technocop for the platform, and RazorSoft has yet to become the major gaming studio we found."
-Kevin Seghetti, programmer of the NES Falcom and the Genesis Stormlord, excerpted from an interview at the Summer 1990 CES promoting the new RazorSoft games.